To ASXIs this OK? I'm pretty new to blogs. In fact this is my first one.sysutils/android-file-transfer-qt4audio/asundershells/bashsysutils/braserosysutils/catfishmultimedia/cheesewww/chromiumx11-wm/comptonprint/cups-filtersprint/cups-smb-backendx11-themes/cursor-dmz-themeports-mgmt/dialog4portsarchivers/dpkgsysutils/e2fsprogstextproc/en-aspelltextproc/en-hunspellgraphics/epdfviewgraphics/evince-liteaudio/exaileaudio/faacports-mgmt/fbsdpkgupdatesysutils/fbsdupdatecheckwww/firefox-i18nshells/fishwww/flashplayerx11-fonts/fonts-indicprint/foomatic-dbprint/foomatic-db-engineprint/foomatic-db-hpijsaudio/freedesktop-sound-themesysutils/fusefs-ext4fusesysutils/fusefs-ntfssysutils/fusefs-simple-mtpfslang/gawksysutils/gbigraphics/gdk-pixbufsysutils/ghostbsd-bug-reportsysutils/ghostbsd-grub2-settingsx11-themes/ghostbsd-iconsirc/ghostbsd-ircx11-themes/ghostbsd-mate-themesx11/ghostbsd-slim-themex11-themes/ghostbsd-wallpapersdevel/gitsysutils/gksumath/gnome-calculatorsecurity/gnome-keyringmultimedia/gnome-mplayergraphics/gpicviewsysutils/grub2-efisysutils/grub2-pcbsdaudio/gstreamer-plugins-cdaudiosysutils/gstreamer-plugins-cdioaudio/gstreamer-plugins-cdparanoiaaudio/gstreamer-plugins-flacwww/gstreamer-plugins-neondevel/gstreamer-plugins-soupaudio/gstreamer-plugins-wavpackmultimedia/gstreamer1-libavgraphics/gstreamer1-plugins-aalibsysutils/gstreamer1-plugins-cdioaudio/gstreamer1-plugins-cdparanoiaaudio/gstreamer1-plugins-faadgraphics/gstreamer1-plugins-glgraphics/gstreamer1-plugins-libcacagraphics/gstreamer1-plugins-libvisualaudio/gstreamer1-plugins-madaudio/gstreamer1-plugins-mpg123graphics/gstreamer1-plugins-openjpeggraphics/gstreamer1-plugins-pngx11-themes/gtk-murrine-enginex11-themes/gtk3-unico-engineirc/hexchatprint/hpliptextproc/intltoolsysutils/inxijapanese/anthyjapanese/font-takaojapanese/ibus-anthyjapanese/ibus-mozcjapanese/ibus-skkjapanese/skkjapanese/skk-toolsjapanese/skkservsysutils/k3b-kde4shells/ksh93audio/lamemultimedia/libdvdcsseditors/libreofficemisc/mcgraphics/mesa-demoswww/midoriaudio/mpg321multimedia/mpveditors/nanonet-mgmt/networkmgrx11/nvidia-driverx11/nvidia-settingsx11/nvidia-xconfigports-mgmt/octopkgjava/openjdk8net-im/pidginports-mgmt/pkgx11-wm/plankports-mgmt/portupgradeaudio/pulseaudiomultimedia/py-ffmpegdevel/py-gobjectmisc/py-pexpectwww/py-webkitgtkmisc/qt4-qtconfiggraphics/ristrettonet/rsyncwww/seamonkeygraphics/shotwellx11/slimmultimedia/smplayermultimedia/smtubedevel/ssftsecurity/sudodevel/swig20devel/swig13devel/swig30print/system-config-printermail/thunderbird-i18nx11/trayersysutils/udfclientnet/ugetmultimedia/umplayerarchivers/unrarports-mgmt/update-stationeditors/vimmultimedia/webcamdx11/wmctrlarchivers/xarchiverdevel/xdg-user-dirssysutils/xfburnx11-wm/xfce4x11/xfce-installed-settingssysutils/xfce4-battery-pluginsysutils/xfce4-bsdcpufreq-pluginx11/xfce4-clipman-pluginsysutils/xfce4-cpugraph-pluginx11-clocks/xfce4-datetime-plugindevel/xfce4-dev-toolstextproc/xfce4-dict-pluginsysutils/xfce4-diskperf-pluginsysutils/xfce4-fsguard-pluginsysutils/xfce4-genmon-pluginmail/xfce4-mailwatch-pluginaudio/xfce4-mixersysutils/xfce4-mount-pluginsysutils/xfce4-netload-plugindeskutils/xfce4-notes-pluginx11/xfce4-quicklauncher-pluginx11/xfce4-screenshooter-pluginwww/xfce4-smartbookmark-pluginsysutils/xfce4-systemload-pluginx11/xfce4-taskmanagerx11-clocks/xfce4-timer-pluginx11/xfce4-verve-plugindeskutils/xfce4-volumedsysutils/xfce4-wavelan-pluginmisc/xfce4-weather-pluginx11/xfce4-whiskermenu-plugindeskutils/xfce4-xkb-pluginx11/xorgsysutils/xorrisox11/zenityshells/zsh

In the latest months we have performed a series a tests, and we are glad to announce we are going to provide a large package repository.

There has been some work in background, we performed a few repository builds, updates, rebuilds and so on, to understand if we will be able to provide a full repository, and what will be the problems/requirements we are going to met.

It turned out, as expected, that building packages is indeed a resource hungry process, and after various tests using our only server (the one that is also hosting our website), we decided to acquire a new server to be used exclusively as a package builder.

That *should* allow us to build nearly the whole ports tree, and by nearly I mean all, excluding some selected ports,in example we will provide several web browsers but not all, several office suites but not all, several C/C++ compilers but not all, and so on. (the software selection is still under discussion, but in general will be something like that).

Additionally, some package will be excluded because extremely specialized, it is the case of a package sized 5GB (yes, you read it correctly) that is an add-on for a chess game.

The plan is to provide *at the very least* weekly updates (and that has more to do with our little manpower than because of the limits of the hardware/ifrastructure.

The new machine should be available in the next days (hours really), we will need to setup a few things, i.e a git repo for ports options that we will explicitly customize for GhostBSD and a few more bits of infrastructure.

There will be a few improvement by builing our own repository:a) we will always have the sources and the repository in sync.b) our own ports and the freebsd ports will be merged in a single tree to build the whole repository, that will prevent any possible dependency version mismatch.c) we (all devs, or anyone) will be able to build our ISOs using exactly the same software, synced to the same source tree, unlike now where the resulting ISO may differ depending on the time of build.

Overall we should obtain a more consistent result, and a more consistent testing phase, that will surely lead to better GhostBSD releases.

One question. Could it be possible to go on with the official FreeBSD repositories instead of GhostBSD's?. For example, if I want to upgrade to the next FreeBSD release and avoid depedency problems?

Another question. I'm running currently 10.3. To upgrade to GhostBSD 11.0 when released the best option is using this GhostBSD repository? Or could I use the FreeBSD traditional way ( freebsd-update upgrade -r 11.0-RELEASE) ?

Third question. After upgrade GhostBSD 11.0 with GhostBSD package repository could I turn back to the FreeBSD repository?

My concerns are mainly related to get aligned with freebsd in terms of kernel, packages, ports, etc. I don't understand the trueos way and I would prefer the most orignal freebsd system with the ghostbsd advantages in terms of "usability" out of the box (configs, tools, etc.).

One question. Could it be possible to go on with the official FreeBSD repositories instead of GhostBSD's?. For example, if I want to upgrade to the next FreeBSD release and avoid depedency problems?

Short answer: Yes, that's possible.

Long answer: You might want to reconsider this. Technically both the FreeBSD repository and the GhostBSD repository will hold packages for use with pkg, so in general either repo will work. There's a reason however why we went through the effort of planning (and shortly setting up) our own pkg repo: It gives us more control. We will be building from FreeBSD's ports tree - with some changes. One example: We're currently using a package called gksu to allow programs that need it (update station, etc.) to graphically elevate privileges. That package draws in nautilus which draws in tracker - which is a pretty evil package. We want neither. So in the future we would be able to build gksu with port options that differ from the standard port options that FreeBSD uses. This is actually a bad example since we're probably dropping gksu, but since I did some work on this, it's an example that came to my mind first. We're going to tune some packages so that they are better fit for desktop use. Also our repo will include packages that are not available on the FreeBSD repo since they are GhostBSD specific. This will include configuration settings - so if you choose to go with the FreeBSD repo only, you might be missing fixes that we provide in our repo. Theoretically it's also possible to mix both repos like configuring the system to use both and e.g. give the FreeBSD one precedence over our repo. However this can lead to all sorts of fun pain and chances are good that nobody here would be able to help you (since we certainly won't be running such a configuration and thus cannot support it) if you run into trouble. So I will definitely recommend against doing this.

Another question. I'm running currently 10.3. To upgrade to GhostBSD 11.0 when released the best option is using this GhostBSD repository? Or could I use the FreeBSD traditional way ( freebsd-update upgrade -r 11.0-RELEASE) ?

The base operating system and the third party packages are actually two independent things right now. If you're using vanilla FreeBSD you don't even need to have the package manager (pkg) installed if you want to do the base OS update! For GhostBSD this is of course not possible since we're providing a desktop and applications which come from packages. In the future FreeBSD will switch to what is called "packaged base" and provide the base system as packages, too. Currently however that's two different worlds. You can use freebsd-update and choose either repo afterwards to update your packages.

Third question. After upgrade GhostBSD 11.0 with GhostBSD package repository could I turn back to the FreeBSD repository?

Definitely. You just risk losing GhostBSD specific modifications. This will most likely be unsupported and in case of problems you'll likely be on your own. But to be honest, I have no idea what direction it will take when we can apply our own port options. IMO we should be gentle and only make changes that really make sense. This might change in the future (nobody can say that right now) but as far as I know, GhostBSD has always aimed at remaining as close to FreeBSD as possible. It worked pretty well for a lot of people being "FreeBSD plus a nice GTK+ desktop". We certainly won't adopt the TrueOS way and make extremely invasive changes just because we can(tm). And if we do, so far the idea was to make those things optional (like replacing the init system or things like that).

So if you want a relatively "pure" desktop FreeBSD with some added convenience tools and a graphical means to install, GhostBSD should continue to fit your needs.